Life in Your Paws
by IvyGreenCat
Summary: Ivy Green loves to read Warriors. But when her zoologist mother discovers that the Warriors series wasn't all fiction, Ivy is chosen to be transformed into a cat for two months and gain the trust of Thunderclan, so that her mother can study the cats in their natural habitat. But apparently Erin Hunter knows a bit more then they let on... can Ivy solve the mystery to save the Clan?
1. Prologue

Warriors Fanfiction Prologue

"YES! YES! A thousand times YES!" I shouted. This was a golden opportunity!

Wait, whoa, slow down. You're probably really confused right now, aren't you? I guess I should start from the very beginning then...

So, let's see, you could say it all started on that one Sunday morning last month, when my mom came bursting into the kitchen with a smile playing across her face that was as bright as the sun. "It's true! It's really real! This is a breakthrough, a major discovery!"

"Slow down honey, what is?" My dad said, being the extremely reasonable person he is. He sighed and left the room, probably to watch TV or something.

My mom took a deep breath. "Ivy, do you know that series of books you love to read about those cats?"

"You mean _Warriors_? What? Is there a new sequel series or something I should know about?"

"Even better," My mom replied.

"What could be better than a sequel series?" I wondered, more to myself than to mom.

"What about an ongoing series that never ends and really exists?" My mom squealed excitedly. Okay, now I was confused. First of all, my mom wasn't even into Warriors. Second, that wasn't possible. Like, literally, that couldn't be possible.

So I decided to talk some sense into her. "Okay, when did you get into Warriors, and that's not possible." I said what was on my mind.

"I got 'into' Warriors when I discovered that Erin Hunter knows her stuff! Or their stuff, since Erin Hunter is a group." Mom was really confusing me now.

"What do you mean? Erin Hunter is a talented group of fiction writers, of course they know their stuff!"

My mom sighed, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Knowing her, it was probably the exact opposite.

"Just tell me," I pushed.

My mom sighed again. "Warriors exist. Erin Hunter is a group of talented historical fiction writers and _scientists_. The particular cats mentioned in the books never existed, but the clans, and the warrior code, and all of the cats' beliefs do. Cats can speak to each other, through meows and body language. They are so much more intelligent than we thought!" She let out another exited squeal. Yep, it was exactly the opposite of obvious.

But, wait. Warriors existed! That was so cool! See, this was the kind of perks you get when you have a family of zoologists.

"Now," my mom said thoughtfully, "If we can only find a way to get into their society and study them..."


	2. Transformation

A/N: Hello! I just need to say:

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN WARRIORS. There.

Also, I will try to update at least every week, but no promises.

Warriors Fanfiction Chapter 1: Transformation

Now that we're almost up to date, let's continue with our story, shall we?

So. My mom came in to my bedroom about a month later to tell me what she obviously thought was exiting news. I got ready for a long speech on the importance of purpleback gorillas. But when she sat down on my bed, she said something I didn't expect at all.

Well, first she gargled out something like: "Wefiguredouthowtotransformpe opleintocatsandmakeitsotheyc anspeakwiththecatsandwecanpl antacameraandmicrophoneinthe manduseacatlanguagetranslati ngmachinetostudythecats!"

But once I calmed her down, she took a deep breath and explained.

"We figured out how to temporarily transform people into cats! We can include understanding of the cats' speech in the transformation. We could plant a camera and microphones in them and use a cat language translator to study the cats in their natural environment!

"All we need to do is find someone who knows a lot about Warriors and understands cats well. But it has to be someone under the age of thirteen, because the prepubescent DNA is the only kind that will work with the technology that we've developed so far. I couldn't think of anybody better to do this than you! Would you like to- ?"

"YES! YES! A thousand times YES!" This was a golden opportunity! I could get to be a warrior cat! I could train and hunt and live with the clan-

"You have to understand what you would be doing here, sweetie. Remember that these are _warrior_ cats, and if you've really read these books attentively, you know how they act toward loners and rouges. They will think you're one of those, or they might think you're a house cat. You'd have to gain their trust, enough to convince them to let you into the clan. Any injuries you gain as a cat will go away once you transform back into a human, but until then the injuries are as bad as if any other cat had gotten them."

I considered this. If the injuries went away, how bad could they get in the time I was with the clan? "I get it, I need to be careful." There was an awkward silence. "So... I can go?"

My mom hesitated, then she looked at me and narrowed her eyes. "If you think you can handle the responsibility, yes."

Two days later...

Mom and I walked into the zoology department at Kitlake University, where she worked.

We strolled down a long hall, and butterflies started to creep into my stomach. What if the transformation went wrong? Or what if the clan didn't accept me?

But, at the same time as all these nervous thoughts crept into my mind, I was excited. I wondered what I would look like as a cat, and what the clan would think of me. I wondered how clan life really was, what it would be like to catch prey. What would mouse taste like? How did it feel to have claws?

Deeply immersed in my own thoughts, I didn't even notice when we walked into a white, spotless room filled with friendly looking scientists.

"Hello, Ivy. Are you ready for the transformation?" a scientist asked me. I jumped, realizing where I was. One of the scientists walked up to me and handed me a cookie and some apple juice. "We have to get your blood sugar up before you transform."

"So, where's this machine?" I asked, sipping my juice. A scientist proudly pushed a button mounted on the wall, and a white plastic armchair rose up from the floor. It had cuffs on the arms and legs, obviously for my ankles and wrists.

The group of zoologists walked me over to the chair, and hooked me up as I expected, by the ankles and wrists. "Are you ready?" A nice-looking lady in a long white lab coat asked me.

"I- I think so." I stuttered. She took the food and pulled a long metal lever; a glass cylinder dropped over my chair. She pushed a button near the top of the lever, and a loud whirring sound came out of the spotless wall.

I noticed that the chair was connected to the wall by a thick cable. Suddenly, the cable started to glow, and sparks ran up the cable from the wall. The sparks reached the chair and I felt a shock, almost like being zapped by static electricity but ten times stronger. I felt a sharp pain run up my spine before everything went black.

A/N: That's it for now! Oh, a cliffhanger, I'm so evil... And lol purpleback gorillas. XD Anybody get the reference? Also, I want to give a shout-out to my dad, who is now the official editor of my stories.


	3. I'm A Cat

**Chapter 2: Training**

When I first came to, I was still in the spotless white room that I was transformed in. I opened my eyes just enough to see through my eyelashes. I wondered why my eyelashes were tan. Then I passed out again.

The next time I woke up, I felt more energized. I opened one eye and realized that I was in my room, lying on my bed. I felt… different. More lithe. Stronger, in a sleek way. But at the same time, I felt small, and weak, and helpless.

Then the memories came flooding back. _That_ was why I felt different. I lifted my head and looked backwards at my pelt. I had a dark tortoiseshell pattern, with a white tipped tail and dark colored paws. My fur was fluffy, and it stuck out in all directions. I felt a strange urge to lick myself. So, this was what it's like to be a cat.

I picked myself up, but wobbled and fell down. _Right, four legs_. I tried again, this time balancing my weight on all four paws. It worked.

Now to get down from the bed. I bunched my muscles, and pushed down hard with my back legs. I sprang down from the bed and landed easily. I guessed that kind of thing comes naturally to cats.

Slowly, I trotted out of the room and into the kitchen. My dad was listening to the radio while he made pancakes. I wondered if I should alert him that I was awake, but thought better of it when he started dancing to the music.

I ventured out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where my mom and my twin sisters were eating breakfast. How could I get mom's attention? I lifted a front paw. Experimentally, I flexed my claws in and out. They were a pearly white, and very sharp. Oh! That's how to get her attention.

I approached mom carefully and lifted up my paw. _Sorry, mom, _I thought, pricking her ankle.

"Ouch!" My mom looked down to see what had poked her. "Oh, Ivy, you're awake. How do you feel?"

"Fine. It's a little weird though, being a cat."

"I can only imagine. Sorry about the rough transformation. Apparently _some people_ don't know how to make machines _child friendly._" I felt bad for whoever had made that slipup; my mom sounded really mad.

"Anyways," she continued, taking a deep breath, "It's time for your training."

"Training?" What training?

"Well, you have to learn how to handle being a cat or the warriors might get suspicious." Mom sounded like this was supposed to be obvious. Well, that's mom for you.

Hope this training isn't as hard as it sounds. But with my luck, it'll be a million times worse.

A/N: Hi guys! I'm sooooo sorry about the really slow update! And I'm sorry it's so short. But with school, art, other stories, and a social life it's hard to fit in time for this. I've also lost a bit of motivation for this because of other stories, but I'll try to update… every month? But like I said before, _absolutely no promises._ Anyways, thanks for reading and reviews are greatly appreciated!


	4. Into the Wild

**A/N: Okay, so I'm sorry I didn't update in January. But this chapter is super long, so consider this a two-month update.**

**I do not, and probably never will own Warriors.**

**Thank you for being so patient, and a BIG thank you to my lovely reviewers! Also, whoever can guess what the reference to purpleback gorillas was to from Chapter 1 gets a cookie… come on, at least try. It's my main fandom!**

To my surprise, training wasn't half bad. I just went into an examining room, and some scientists tested to make sure that all of my limbs and organs were functioning properly and stuff. It was actually kind of fun to test out my new abilities, get more of a feel for what it was like to be a cat.

"You'll be able to understand both human and cat languages, and to control which you're speaking all you have to do is concentrate. It's not hard, just know who you're talking to and you should be fine." My mother had explained.

They'd clipped a microphone in my ear and told me that they had implanted a camera into my eye after the transformation, when I was still out cold ("Gross! I never gave you permission to do that!"). They made sure it got through my head that nothing, and they meant NOTHING could happen to my eyes or the microphone, or they would have to come into the forest and pick me up immediately. Once I had told them I got it for the billionth time, they backed down and gave me a few easy obstacle courses to test out my abilities.

Once training was over, I went back home to say my goodbyes, and then we took off through the countryside in a big white van. Let me tell you, it's _really _awkward trying to sit in a car when you're a cat. And don't even get me started on seatbelts. I just kind of sat there as we drove and stared out at the glittering golden fields of hay and farmhouses and horses. It was so beautiful out here. I wasn't quite sure whether I was exited or scared that I would get to live out here in this gorgeous place for two months. Maybe a little of both.

Before I knew it, the farmhouses thinned out and I could see trees in the distance. As we pulled up, I realized: _These are the territories._ And they all looked so perfect, too. Just like the books… ThunderClan territory on the left side of the road, where there lay lush greenery, beautiful oaks and maples, and plenty of undergrowth with bracken and brambles that looked perfect for hiding in to sneak up on prey or to keep reinforcements hidden in to ensure the element of surprise in battle. On our right was ShadowClan territory, with towering pine trees and a few sparse plants littered on the ground here and there. The forest floor in ShadowClan territory was, as promised in the books, wet and marshy with a bit of grass and a layer of pine straw creating a light blanket over the ground. You could see right through the trees there, and it might just have been the sunset playing tricks on me, but I swore I could make out the forms of four big, sleek cats in the distance staring out at us, perhaps wondering why our van was going slower than the other monsters went.

We continued slowly down the road, with ThunderClan territory on the left and ShadowClan on the right. We continued for a couple minutes, admiring the lush scenery, and then the driver stopped the van right on the edge of ThunderClan territory.

Ahead I saw a never-ending golden field with lush, long grass that swayed in the soft evening breeze. I could see the grass shift in some places, signaling that rabbits were scuffling through in search of dinner, and farther into the field the grass grew in clumps, becoming more wild, with more animals-which meant that was most likely the cats' hunting grounds. It felt like I could see forever there, and I caught my breath at the sheer beauty of the sunset shining over what was obviously WindClan territory. It stretched out on our left and, remembering the books, I knew that RiverClan territory would be farther in, starting at Fourtrees.

Farther on our right, where there was more beautiful grass that thinned out into the distance, I could just make out some outcroppings of rock that I realized was Highstones, obviously an abandoned mine. I wondered what they mined there. Maybe crystals; the Moonstone was in one of the mine tunnels, so it would make sense. I realized I might get to go there someday, which made me pretty exited.

"Ivy? We're here."

I was snapped out of my inner rant about how cool Highstones must be by my mother's soft, stern voice. I shook my head, pulling myself out of my thoughts. "O-okay. So… I guess this is goodbye, then."

"I guess it is." My mom smiled and embraced me in a hug. Then she looked me over nervously. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I nodded. "Okay, then. Follow the scientists' directions step by step, and be very careful out there. Got it?"

"Got it." I stepped out of the van-more like jumped because the van was pretty high off the ground for a cat-and trotted over to the scientists kneeling over to see me better. "Okay, make me up." Oh yeah, I forgot to mention; they were going to make it look like my leg was bleeding, and I had to act injured so ThunderClan would (hopefully) take me in. _That's odd; the fake blood they're using smells … real._ And with my cat nose, I could smell really,_ really _well.

"Um, guys? Is this blood… real?"

The scientists flinched as one. The lady who had given me food before the transformation finally gulped and spoke up. "We have to use real cat blood, or the medicine cat will know it's fake."

I winced. "O-okay." I breathed deeply, trying hard not to wonder where they got the blood. I just closed my eyes as they painted it on. Luckily, I'd had a scrape on my leg from a bike accident before the transformation, so they didn't have to cut it themselves to make an opening from which the blood would've come out. If it was a real sprained ankle, of course, not fake.

I mentally went over what I was supposed to do once I got to the clan. "Make it look real," the scientists had told me. "Be dramatic, but not too much so. You'll be the age of a big kit to them, so you'll gain the trust of the queens first. The clan leader and medicine cat will trust you next, then possibly the deputy and apprentices, but there will plenty of suspicion from the warriors. You'll have to be careful not to slip up." It was my turn to gulp now. I've had my fair share of slip-ups, and I knew that it would be hard not to make a single slip-up for two months.

"Are you ready to go?" I blinked once and looked up, opening my eyes and blinking them again to clear my eyes from the long time they'd been squeezed shut tightly. The scientists were done with my leg. I nodded hesitantly, taking a deep breath before building up the courage to take a glance at the fake injury. Slowly, I turned my head to see my leg. When I caught sight of it, it took all of my guts not to whip my head back around and squeeze my eyes shut again. _Well… I do have to admit, they did a good job. I would never know it's not a real injury if I saw this on another cat. _For your own good, I won't explain my 'injury' to you, but I can tell you that it was not a pretty sight.

A scientist's voice came from behind me. "Let's go, then." I nodded again, remembering my mother's directions; '_Go straight from where they set you off, I won't be going into the forest with you, and run for a few minutes until you reach a set of boulders. Carefully go around it, that's Snakerocks, then take a sharp right and keep going for about five minutes until you reach a wall of weaved plants, the wall of the camp. Walk around that _quietly_, so the cats don't hear you until your big entrance, and you'll see the gorse tunnel into camp. Then… you know what to do.'_

I said my goodbyes, got up carefully as not to smear the scientists' hard work, and the scientists and I set off into the woods. It really was pretty there: red and gold light from the setting sun filtered through the trees and glinted off the almost florescent green leaves swinging from branches and the beautiful orange and amber leaves littered on the forest floor. Everything was dripping, from the thick, damp undergrowth to the wet canopy of leaves high above us that was the treetops, and even the air seemed to be sopping wet from the recent rainfall. The soft scuffling of mice and voles surrounded us, accompanied by a few late birdcalls while the chirping of crickets and cicadas pierced the evening air. My mouth began to water as the smell of prey wafted from the thick undergrowth, which I thought was weird until I remembered cats eat these things; _I_ eat these things. The trees towered way up over us, and the undergrowth looked five feet tall to me. Being a cat makes everything seem so much bigger, and at times it gets pretty intimidating… well, to people who aren't used to being cats, anyways.

We walked for a few minutes and then stopped, the scientists telling me that they'd be scented if they went any farther. I thanked them, and then I set off straight as mom had instructed me. I continued for a few minutes, increasing my pace and enjoying the wind whipping through my hair — no, my fur. I had fur now.

I ran and ran, and was just starting to wonder when I would get to Snakerocks when I ran head-on into a boulder about four times taller than me and five times my length. I backed away, my eyes squeezed shut on the dull pain.

"Owww…" My eyes snapped open, and I did a double take at my own voice. Instead of my normal, tween-aged tone, my voice drifted out in a high-pitched _mrrow_. I hadn't noticed it before with all of the excitement, but now that I was alone and everything was quiet and there wasn't much else to listen to but my own voice, the change was obvious. Blinking, I slowly opened my mouth to speak. "Oh my gosh…" gasped my new voice. _Weird._

Only then did I think to look up at the towering collection of boulders I'd face-planted on. It really was an impressive sight; roughly fourteen huge boulders, some piled on top of each other, lay in front of me, and some sparse grass poked out from the red dust in the shadows where no leaves had been able to fall. I could just make out the faint _hissss_-ing of adders hiding in the cracks of the grey speckled rocks with my cat hearing. I remembered my mother's warning, inching carefully around Snakerocks in a wide berth. I took a sharp right, following the directions exactly, and continued walking, after a while picking up a faster gait.

I ran for about five minutes until a weaved wall of plants came into view. "The camp…" I whispered. I was amazed by how tightly the cats had been able to weave the plants, but not as much as I would have been as a human. You'd be surprised how much you can actually do without an opposable thumb.

"Did you hear something?" I froze as a very faint, high-pitched voice drifted through the tight wall of the Thunderclan camp.

"You're so paranoid, Poppypaw. There's nothing out there." A lower voice, a tom's, came this time, though it didn't seem old enough to be a warrior's voice. I was listening in on some apprentices' conversation.

"Don't be mean, Thrushpaw. It was probably just the wind." A slightly older male voice, but not quite a warrior's, spoke.

I just picked up an oh-so-soft sigh wafting out from inside the camp. "Yeah, you guys are probably right." I heard Poppypaw's voice say. She seemed nice; I wondered if we'd end up being friends.

"So, did you hear that Grasswing's pregnant again?" Thrushpaw's voice asked.

"No way, she's having another litter? Seems like she just had one a couple moons ago!" Poppypaw exclaimed.

"Yeah, Redmoon announced it while you guys were out on that patrol…."

I shook my head, knowing I shouldn't listen to Thrushpaw talk about the new kits right now. I continued walking by the camp wall, more quietly now so as not to alert the Clan cats. They obviously had great hearing; Poppypaw had almost found me out until Thrushpaw and that other older apprentice had waved it off.

I crept around the camp as quietly as I could, excitement building up in my chest with every paw step. To distract myself from the excitement and, I realized, fear, I tried to familiarize myself with the scent of ThunderClan. Hopefully, it was a scent I'd be living with for the next two months.

After a while of slow walking and frantic sniffing (almost to the point of hyperventilation; it was lucky I stopped when I did), I pulled up short, finding myself in front of the entrance to a thick gorse tunnel.

"The entrance!" I whispered, then quickly clamped my jaws shut. _Crap, I hope they didn't hear me!_

"Did you hear somebody out there?"

I groaned. _Of course._ I figured now was a much better time than later to make my dramatic entrance.

So I stared into the foreboding blackness of the gorse tunnel, and took a long, deep breath. "I guess this is _Into the Wild_," I chuckled under my breath. I quickly sobered up, though, and took another deep, calming breath. I put on a hopefully convincing fake limp before dragging myself through the thick gorse into my new home- the ThunderClan camp.

**A/N: Whew. Done! Hope you guys enjoyed. As always, read and review 3**

**Btw, anyone get that joke at the end there? Into the Wild? Haha…ha…ha… yeahhhhhh.**


	5. Arguments and Unveilings

And so I pulled myself through the gorse tunnel and into camp. The light that burst at me from the end of the tunnel was almost blinding, since I'd been walking in the dark for a minute or two.

"Whoa…" I breathed once I'd gathered my bearings. Looking around, squinting against the sunlight that filtered through the trees and dappled the flat, worn ground of the ThunderClan camp, I could tell that these cats were a whole lot smarter than they were made out to be. I mean, how could they build a camp like this if they weren't? The dens actually looked livable (I wasn't really sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing), and by the way the structure of the camp was set up, I could tell that these cats were more than just amateurs dabbling in architecture. They were professionals.

Since it was noon, cats were laying lazily around in the clearing in pairs or groups, sharing tongues or snacking on fresh-kill. Or, at least, they had been. Now every sharp, calculating feline glare was on me. One cat, a pitch-black tom- so dark was his pelt, gleaming in the dappled natural light, that it almost looked purple- narrowed his eyes. "Where is Tigerstar?" he asked. The question was obviously meant for his clanmates to answer, but all the while he kept his gaze trained on me, a predator tracking his prey to make sure it wouldn't scamper away.

The second the word Tigerstar came from his lips, I froze. He couldn't possibly mean… no. No, he couldn't. Tigerstar was not real, just a fictional character woven by the Erin Hunters, set in the very real world of the warrior cats. He couldn't be… he couldn't be real; I mean… he couldn't actually exist… right?

No, I decided for the fourth time, this wasn't the same Tigerstar. Tigerstar from the Warriors series had never been the leader of ThunderClan anyways. It wouldn't even make… it wouldn't make sense for him to… to be _here_, would it? It wouldn't. No. Because he wasn't here. It was just a coincidence. Tiger was a cool name, it was fierce and brave and all that. A queen would have every reason to name her kit that, it wasn't at all unusual that their leader happened to be named Tigerstar. Not at all.

"So do you plan to say something, or are you deaf? Mute perhaps?" The black tom drawled. "We're not all staring at you just so you can stand there and sweat your life away."

"R-right," I stammered, "I… see, I'm-!"

"She's hurt!" cried a feminine voice. From out of the crowd emerged a grayish tabby queen, pushing and shoving through the cats to reach the small birth of empty space I occupied. The sunlight rippled through her fur, making the tips seem greenish. Her belly was swollen; she was bearing kits. Was this Greenwing, the she-cat the apprentices had been gossiping about? The queen checked me over worriedly, telling me that her name was Greenwing (as I'd suspected), and the medicine cat should be here shortly.

"Are you insane, Greenwing?" the still unnamed tom snapped, she could be a spy from ShadowClan!"

"Or a kittypet! She smells of Twolegs!" shouted a young voice from the crowd. What apprentice would be that mean? I guessed I'd have some bullies to deal with; though I guess that was to be expected. I remembered how the clan cats had treated Firestar at first, in the books.

The black cat nodded, "Exactly."

"Have you lost your fox-brain of a mind?" cried a she-cat from the gathered clan. A tan queen with light and dark splotches melted from the crowd, her face contorted with anger. "A kit, Sharptooth? Really? I knew you were low, but you've really dipped to the next level this time—and look at her injury! Didn't you even notice-?"

"That thing would only take a couple of sunrises to heal, Cliffshine," the black tom—Sharptooth—said, suspicion hanging from his every word, "That's exactly what they want us to think, we're playing right into their trap!"

"Their _trap_? Well, _excuse _me for defending a helpless, injured kit!" snapped Cliffshine angrily, "In the warrior code, I do believe you'll find, there's a certain _rule_ for _helpless, injured_ kits—even from other clans. Even kittypets!" she spat to the crowd.

Greenwing, her examination long forgotten, said timidly, "You two, I really don't think-."

"_I_ don't think this has anything to do with that part of the warrior code," interrupted Sharptooth smugly.

"This had _everything_ to do with the warrior code!" Cliffshine cried, "If-!"

A dark, smooth, masculine voice cut her off from across the clearing by the gorse tunnel, and when it spoke, the clan fell completely silent. "And _what_ is going on here?"

Oh my god—oh my StarClan I guess I mean.

Oh my StarClan. _Ohoho. My. Flipping. Starclan._

Across the clearing, standing tall and strong was a person—I mean, a cat—which I never thought I could see, or would have to see, in real life.

Because the cat standing across the clearing, having just emerged from the gorse tunnel, was the spitting image of Tigerstar.

**A/N: Hey, sorry this chapter was so short, I'm pretty busy recently. I swear, once school gets out, I'll be posting chapters like crazy. But I did get some things down in this chapter that I've wanted to put in for a while. And thus the plot thickens! **_**Why**_** is Tigerstar here? **_**How**_** can he exist when he is supposedly a fictional character? **_**When**_** will Ivy get to meet this evil mastermind? **_**What the vole butt is going on here?!**_

**Find out the answers to these questions and more in the coming chapters of ****Life in Your Paws****!**


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